online: 18 november 2006
modified: 17 november 2006

17 november 2006 aspects of Britain


12:01 The Hill Garden... under fast-moving clouds before the heavy rains and thunder that are forecast for this afternoon... i walked here quickly over a continuous layer of yellow and brown leaves while seeking fresh air and exercise before the rains...

...and now, sitting on a seat in this ornamental garden of trees and shrubs, i watch the trees sway and the leaves scatter in gusts of wind... one leaf has got caught my woollen glove and refuses to be blown away by the wind or by my breath....

...i go to watch the rain clouds from the lookout point in the elevated pergola, looking north-west...the church spire at Harrow-on-the-Hill (which i visited earlier) is still visible despite the rainclouds...

and now, looking south from the highest seat on Hampstead Heath, i can see that the city towers are still lit by patches of sunlight as the rainclouds arrive from the south west... large raindrops appear in the handheld so I unfold an umbrella and head for the nearest bus stop where i see a kestrel hovering over West Heath and a tall flag pole on which is flying the union jack, the flag of the imposed unity* of a nation state, now separating into smaller cultural units while slowly joining a larger economic union...

*the union jack is composed of the crosses of Saint George of England, Saint Andrew of Scotland and Saint Patrick of Ireland, superimposed. There is no Welsh dragon because, at the time of union, Wales was regarded as a part of England (although the ancestors of the Welsh people were the original inhabitants of most of Britain)...





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